Former Arsenal Set Piece Coach Georgson joins Manchester United
Andreas Georgson: Worked for Arsenal from August 2020 to September 2021 before joining Malmo
Written by Training Ground Guru — July 27, 2024
Former Arsenal and Southampton Set Piece Coach Andreas Georgson has joined Erik ten Hag’s new-look backroom staff at Manchester United.
The 42-year-old, who will be speaking at our TGG Live Conference in September, arrives from Norwegian side Lillestrom, where he has been Head Coach since January.
Georgson has also been Technical Director and caretaker manager of Malmo in his native Sweden and Set Piece Coach at Brentford (where he doubled up as Individual Development Coach), Arsenal and Southampton.
It was at Saints, where he served from August to December 2023, that he worked with Manchester United Technical Director Jason Wilcox. who was Director of Football at the south coast club at the time.
Georgson is the fourth addition to Ten Hag’s coaching staff this summer, following assistants Rene Hake and Ruud van Nistelrooy and Goalkeeper Coach Jelle ten Rouwelaar.
Georgson appeared on Episode #37 of the TGG Podcast (which you can listen to below) in 2022, when he gave insights into the set piece work he had done under Mikel Arteta at Arsenal.
Andreas Georgson will be speaking at TGG Live 2024 at St George's Park in September.
To find out more and to buy tickets, please click below.
“On the defensive structure, the level of detail was probably perfect. It was not too flexible, it was quite firm, and we did the same things week after week to improve step by step,” he explained.
“Hopefully I gave them some guidance and we did some detailed work that I think is not common in football - that you work details in marking, details in avoiding a block or doing your specific role.
“With the defensive side (of set pieces) we really managed to find a process that can go all over the season, so the players get reminded in a good frequency about the small details they should keep doing.
“I made sure the principle was as clear as possible. Then the key people in the process - some players in our hybrid defence - I actually fed back with them after every game. And on the pitch I took the stance that I do something after every session set piece wise.
“Once we got the attacking process starting and to build gradually, that process also started to become strong.”
He added that a lot of set piece coaching was about being a salesman.
“It’s a lot about selling to them (the players) - ‘If we spend time on this it will really help you in the game and it will help the team,’” he said. “It’s a lot about being a salesman, because set pieces are boring to begin with. Try to make it fun, try to do it in context and try to motivate the players.
“It takes patience and it takes motivation from the players, because they would rather take 20 shots after a session (than practice set pieces). That is so much more passionate for them and more fun.
“Players didn’t become footballers to understand how to avoid a block, but it is still highly effective to know. Detailed work (on set pieces) is really boring, it doesn’t come from passion, it just really helps if you can improve your role in the team in this specific area.
“There are not so many (set piece) specialists out there that I think will be efficient. You need to find the right man or woman to do it and if you’re going to do it there must be full buy-in - including from the manager - so that everyone accepts we are going to spend time and effort on this.”
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